Vehicles today commonly come equipped with telematics systems or telematics units that communicate wirelessly with a call center and are interfaced to other system modules on the vehicle to monitor and control vehicle functions. Through monitoring various vehicle functions, the telematics units can thereby detect if an abnormal or other reportable vehicle condition or event occurs. And when the telematics unit senses a reportable vehicle event, the unit can store related information for subsequent upload to the call center. More serious conditions can be reported immediately. Once received, the call center then processes and stores this information so that it can be reported out to the customer or otherwise used as desired. For example, the information can be included in periodic communications with a vehicle owner, such as in diagnostic emails sent monthly via email.